Secrets
by Red Cheshire Queen
Summary: Danny is trying to find the right time to Valerie his secret, but his older evil self is planing on ruin his life with a wild card. Vlad becomes entangled and secrets WILL be revealed, maybe more then Danny can handle. Complete with edits and grammer checked!
1. Chapter One: Meeting

**Before I start Truths, I'm cleaning up the early chapters of this.**

**Secrets:**

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

**Chapter One: Meeting. **

IT was quiet in the ghost zone. Quieter then usual. The normal banshee screaming had been silenced. Many of the ghosts were in the Meeting ground. It was like a giant stadium with the head ghosts in the middle. By head ghost the head of their area or building. Like the yeti like creature called Frostbite, leader of the Far-Frozen with white fur and ice arm sitting next to Pandora, the six armed, 7 foot tall leader of the mythological world. Dora was also there. Her usual blue dress was traded for a gold one, looking much grander with a large crown on her had. Walker was also there, looking inpatient and drumming his fingers on the table. Ghost Writer was there at the table too, only standing behind someone.

Those were the only people Danny recognize at the table. There were twenty-two in all. Eleven were sitting down and had one person standing behind them. He himself was standing at the table. Valerie had come with him as his second and he let her sit down instead. That decision he was regretting. Letting her come that is.

She was twitching for her gun every few minutes. Being in the ghost zone gave her a home field disadvantage. In her upgraded suit she looked lethal, she had her helmet on even though most of the ghosts knew who she was but she felt safe behind her mask. Danny leaned over the chair and whispered directly into her ear speaker of the suit.

"Stop worrying Red, you only have to worry after the meeting."

"Why?" she whispered back. They made a permanent truce after Valerie found out about Vlad she even had the guts to tell him she knew, (but not the being a pawn information she over heard) and has full access to any thing she wants, from there it seemd like her luck changed, her father got premoted at Dalv and they had moved out of their little apartment and back in a nice house. She didn't stop ghost hunting however, she found she liked it to much.

"The truce," Danny replied simply. "No ghost can attack any other until Clockworks representor say's the meetings over _then _you should worry. Walker and a few others with take this chance to try and get me and maybe you as well."

Granted, he barely trusted the truce himself, if a ghostwriter could break one as easily as he did, he only had everyone honour to keep them safe.

"I really hate Vlad right now." She seethed. "Why did I have to come?"

"He knows if he let Skulker come we'll be down each others throats, Danielle's in the Bahamas and personally I don't want those digitalized photos of us making out all over the ghost zone and all over the Internet."

Vlad was the reason Danny and Valerie were here in the first place. He had told Danny about this rare ghost meeting of the entire ghost community only when all 12 leaders agree on a meeting shall it be, but no one had agreed since Pandora's second: a gorgon turned eight members to stone. With a little convincing (_cough-_blackmail-_cough_) he got Danny to be his right hand man at the meeting. Then he bailed almost last minute and Danny was stuck telling the ghosts about the US presidents plan.

With the occasional hushed whisper the stadium was silent. Danny had made Valerie sit next to Frostbite, asking stray questions ever now and then.

"How long 'til he comes now Frostbite?" Danny whispered to the white giant. Frostbite was sitting on two chairs to hold his large size, he whispered back.

"Not long, you see that large hourglass above the Head chair Great One?" Frostbite said letting himself glance over to the only empty chair. "When all the sand leaves the bottom of the hour glass he should appear." That was the strange thing about the Hour glass: the sand was moving up to the top glass instead of falling. It gave a ghostly white glow. "It's a new person ever millennia or two and this will be Clockworks new representors' second meeting but he knows what to do. Clockwork only picks the best."

"Danny, look!" Valerie said pointing to the hourglass, the last bit of sand had just risen to the top; it glowed a brighter white then changed to neon green. It disappeared in a flash of light.

Everyone waited, five seconds. Ten Seconds. One minute. A disembodied voice boomed in the stadium echoing thought-out the Ghost zone.

"Sorry I'm late; the hour glass is missing some sand." A man in his mid 20's had appeared from behind the head chair, sitting down. He looked so small in the over large chair. He was dressed like the grim reaper or _was_ the grim reaper, Danny wasn't sure. The hood covered his eyes and hair, making Danny want to know more about this secretivie man. A black cat with a white glow jumped on top of the table. "Now let's get down to business. State your names. I am Clockworks representor. Guarding the past, present and future."

Dora stood up, "Dorothea, Queen of the Medieval Realm, my second: My royal advisor." She moved her hand in the direction of a man with a long red robe, he silently nodded.

An old man in warm, winter clothes who looked like a small gust of wind can knock him over stood as Dora sat. "The Librarian, keeper of all books," he turned around pointing to the one behind him. "My second: Ghost Writer."

"Walker, Warden of the Ghost Jail, My Second: Bullet." Walker stood up and said his part and sat down.

An entirely new face Danny hadn't been able to guess stood up. "Serena: Oracle, representing the observants and politics, my second: council member Anderson."

She was dressed in a midnight blue robe, her dark brown hair curled down her back. Her strange Dark blue eyes met Danny's who looked a way as fast as she could. The floating eyeball looked bored.

"Rose, Keeper of Eden's Garden, my second: Ivy." A lady maybe in her twenties stood up, wearing a long green dress that looked like it was made of leaves. Which, it probably was. A Flower pot with an over large Venus flytrap was next to Rose, somewhat purred in response.

"Sheriff John," a Man in Cowboy gear stood up and to anyone looking Walker shot him a glare, which John smirked at. "Law keeper of the Wild ghost desert and Canyons, my second: My son Jr." The person behind him was around seventeen in cowboy gear as well.

A royal looking man stood up, a crown on his head, beside him was what Danny guessed was a pirate. "Prince Alexander and Pirate Prince Samson, representing the Ghost Sea in the place of the last kings."

A plump woman stood up. She looked as if she had lived in the 70's, a tall, skinny man stood behind her. "Miss Foster, Carers at the Child Care Centre, my second: my brother Maxwell."

"Pandora, Leader of the Mythological Realm." Pandora stood up and boomed. "My second: Head Cyclops."

Frostbite stood up the chairs creaked with the lifted weight. "Frostbite leader of the Far Frozen, my second: My High Councillor."

Danny felt the thousands of ghost's watching him as Valerie stood up as Frostbite sat down, she seemed a lost of words. Who wouldn't be? She had hunted ghosts for nearly a year and now she was in their territory, the _enemy's_ territory, unfamiliar ground and it unnerved her.

"Danny Phantom and the Red Huntress." Danny said, and all eyes shifted on him, "Representing Amity Park, and the Human Realm."

Valerie numbly sat down, looking down at the table in humiliation. The Reaper at the head of the table ignored her embarrassment. Instead he turned his eyes to someone else.

"I'm glad most of you know each other but stop staring at Phantom like that Walker, you look like you want to eat him." Danny snapped his head into Walkers direction, he did see the look of hatred on his face and the man in robes had described it _exactly_ like Danny would have. "This meeting has the temporarily truce over us, I myself would find it extremely humorous if we had to throw you into your own jail."

"I bet you would Reaper." Walker growled, sifting his eyes to Valerie. "Human's in the Ghost Zone are against the rules; I'll have to book Plasmius." He sneered at her, Valerie gulped.

"Not now Walker." Reaper started sounding impatient; his voice had a dangerous tone to it that made it hard to disobey. But Walker _never_ liked being told what to do.

"Yes now! I've waited all year for this: My subject is Human-Ghost Hybrids, or commonly known as Halfas." Walker said eyeing Danny again, standing up and begun to circle the table. "Getting to do what they want whenever they want, I know for a fact Plasmius broke Vortex out of Observants Custody which took three years for me to catch him in the first place, and let Pariah Dark out of his prison and Plasmius is still flying around free as a bird! And this punk," Walker spat pointing dangerously to Danny. "Don't get me started-"

"No one has started you, Walker." Frostbite said with a growl, defending Danny. Danny just stood there not knowing what to do as the older ghosts fought about him.

"No one is above the law!" Walker snapped.

"Exactly. You yourself have broken many rules to try to capture Young Phantom here." Serena the Oracle said. "I should know, you and several others have put in so many complaint files that they have its own _cabinet_."

"Besides, Phantom fixes all of the problems Vlad caused. Vortex being the most recent." Her second said. "Maybe you're mad he's better at your job ten you are."

Walker growled at the statement and shot Danny a look that could melt steel. Danny had had enough; strangers were talking about him with the whole Ghost zone, it was like watching his parents and the principal of his school argure over what he deserves, usually shushin him if her tried defending himself.

"Um, I am right here you know." Danny tried to say loudly and with confidence but his voice squeaked. "We are talking about Hybrids, not me, so please get the topic back on track."

Vlad had told him Walker was going to make his topic on them and advised Danny to keep his head down until the topic ended, but as usual Danny didn't listened to Vlad. Walker growled at the boy and sat down.

"I say you let me have both Vlad and Phantom so they don't do anything else that might put us all in danger." "I'm here to keep ghost safe from loose cannons like them! Why let them cause chaos?"

"You do remember that as a meeting is in session and the period of tie between first meeting and last, all sitters at the meeting have basically diplomatic imunity? Unless we all vote to remove such imunity so Walker can take Phantom and Vlad." The Reaper said, Danny heard murmurs from the meeting ghosts.

"I wold like to point out, Sir Phantom has been knighted by myself." Dora pipped up, standing as she spoke. "I personally back him and any foul play during this meeting has my kingdom's force to deal with." she gave him a small smile and he smiled back.

"Along with us of the Far Frozen, each one of us is willing to fight for the Great One." Frostbite stated, his second nodded in agreement. There was no doubt about the Far Frozen and his Yeti friends.

Pandora stood up and towered over the table. "My forces are the greatest warriors in the ghost zone, my army of fallen heroes will crush anyone that crosses me, and since I owe the child a large favour that includes this meeting and beyond." And that was a surprise. He considered her someone that wasn't actively out for his blood, not so much as an ally until now.

He saw members shift in their seats. Bullet appeared to be having seconds thoughts on the voting idea while Waker tried not to look like he had lost. The people he hadn't met shared looks with each other. He was sure the Ghost writer and the Libarian dd not have an army on disposal (unless Libarian could summon paper dragons), The day care had children, but he got the feeling the carers wouldn't let them be harmed. He wouldn't count the garden out (With Overgrowth still fresh in his mind), or the Pirates. The rest he had no idea.

A low whistle echoed. The Older Cowboy had his feet up on the table. He tilted his hat up. "Damn Walker, I think you're pretty out gunned here, cause, I'm always against you. Five to one, at the moment. No one else has to say anything but dropping will be your safest bet."

"Never." Walker growled. Danny could almost see the sparks fly between the two as they glared at each other. Walker seemed to be the only one willing to range war, even against the odds.

"Before you two start fighting again I'm postponing any vote of the Hybrid topic until a later date. Anyone else?" Reaper said, no one volunteered so Danny tapped Valerie's shoulder.

"We will."

**UPDATE: I fixed it a bit, bad sentancing and all. And A few other things.**

*** I didn't think they would be able to fit ALL the ghost in one place, so I changed it to 'many', still, 'many' is a small proportion in the Zone.**

**Second UPDATE: Made it longer, as it makes sense that a rare meeting would actually have more then two people talk.**


	2. Chapter two: Invitation

**I am extremely sorry, I haven't updated in months… years, I finally remembered my Account password, (how dumb can I get?)**

**This Chapter has been edited. From here one Swearing will become more frequent, not F bombs, but if you're sensitive to mild languages brace yourself.**

Having the whole Ghost zone looking at Danny made him uncomfortable. Valerie was sweating bullets under her mask, and he had to give the ghost the news. News that would probably get something thrown at him.

"A while ago the Fenton's came through the portal with a guest." Danny started; he memorized what he had to say a few hours before the meeting, tune out and let his memory do the talking. "This guest was the spokesmen of the president of the United states, but also the United Nations, as the only active working portal that they know of is in America the responsablity fell on the goverment to do so.

"Well, he was lead to Vlad (for some odd reason) and they discussed the plan that would change the way all of us live forever." Breathing in, he waited for Valerie to set a small pyramid in the middle of the table, digging into his pocket he pulled out a remote of some sort. Clicking a button two images came up. Two spheres, one a green and blue orb, earth. The second, an orb that consisted of green and purple, The Ghost Zone.

"Here's the earth," he pointed to the left. "And here's the Ghost Zone." Then he pointed to the right. "The worlds are separate but entwined, the president noticed that." He took another deep breath, "They have a deal for us, one, as I said before, will change how we live, and where." He clicked another button, four humans walked on the earth as four green ghosts flew around the Ghost zone. He then clicked the third button, what looked like the Fenton Portal appeared in between the two worlds, two humans jumped though it and started walking on the ghost zone.

"They want to expand to the Ghost Zone." The ghost seemed to all gasp at one, a habit that had no use to gain more air, since they stopped breathing long ago. As Danny predicted, someone _did_ throw half a hot dog at him, the ghost started to talk, some louder than others. Moving out of the way of any more flying projectiles, the Reaper stood up and yelled for silence. They stopped in a heartbeat.

"Now, continue." He sat back down again, gesturing for him to talk. Serena, raised her hand, Danny noticed that she looked the youngest other then Valerie and him, looking around 14, not bother for permission started to talk.

"Phantom, I couldn't help but notice a huge problem in that plan." She stated, summoning a scaled of ectoplasm. "If we do give the humans the permission to settle on our plain, the two plains would become too unbalanced as there are too many beings on the one plain and over time will eventually crumble." The Scales did a little show, one side tipping over slowly as she talked and imploded when she finished.

Danny nodded, "That's why I haven't finished, the president has said that if humans are allowed in the ghost zone without being harm, then he pressed the final button, two ghost flew though the ghost portal and into the human world, flying around it. "Ghost's are allowed to come into the human world without being harmed."

More talking, the Reaper took much longer to calm the ghost down. But this news was absolutely insane, Ghost and Humans sharing lives? It was never meant to be, to see loved ones against on both sides of the realms, excitement overcame them.

"Humans and ghost are not supposed to be in the same realms." Bullet stated, he started to walk around the table, closer to the two holographic worlds. With an eerie green glow of his eyes the humans and ghost were back in their own worlds. "Humans stay in their world, we stay in ours. It's how everything has been and how it should stay."

"BUT. We know for an absolute fact that ghost have been passing into the human realm since death. And even the rarity of a living person coming into the ghost zone." She pointed out.

"Then they get put in the ghost jail, human, or ghost." Walker sneered.

"I think it's a great idea." Rose piped up, earning a glare from Walker. "Oh come on! Who hasn't dreamed of this? Wished that both the living and dead could walk among each other? Walker is _old_, very old, and he's clouded by the old rules, back to the medieval times where living past forty you were declared a witch (No offence Queen Dora). Where it was safer for us to stay in the ghost zone, and banning humans." Walker shot her a glare, she ignored it. "It's different now, everyone is becoming more open minded." She smiled and turned to Danny, he blushed slightly, she was pretty. "Heck, I wager that the hybrids will one day be accepted, maybe less the ten years"

"I take that bet!" Bullet said, uncharacteristly grinning, but to Danny it looked down right evil.

"I do as well," Walker smirked. "The usually stakes?"

"Why not? I always win." Rose smirked as well.

Danny saw Frostbite rolling his eyes and muttering something along the lines of 'not again', he made a note to ask about it later. He noticed the glowing black cat jump into Valerie's lap, she jumped slightly. It purred and rubbed itself against her armour, she, liking cats way more than dogs, took her glove off to give it a scratch.

"Bet later, this isn't a poker table." Reaper dismissed, he thought for a second about what to do, he turned to Danny again. "What do you think about this Phantom?"

Danny froze. He was expecting questions on the proposal, not himself.

"I, well He sputtered. He paused to compose himself.

"You are the best person to ask, you walk in both worlds." He said.

"Objection, representor." The plump Lady stood up, her handbag swinging on her arm. "He's only a child, both in age and being dead, thi is a very serious queston that can't be asked ithout thinking it over."

"Nonsense! Less time to think, the more honest the answer." She persed her lips and sat dow. Again he had his attention on Danny. "So, Danny Phantom. What do you think of both Ghosts and Humans living together?"

"I think..." He and Valerie glanced at each other. He imagined ghost's floating freely and peacefully in the blue sky with no one screaming or running. Humans building in the Ghost Zone, families reuniting. Would he finally have a break? Would it be okay to come out as a hybrid?

"I know what you were thinking, Kid." He said, after Danny had been silent for to long. "Peace. For you and everyone involved." He laid over the large chair. "I don't know what's coming everyone. That's Clockworks job. But I'm here to ask the questions and answer them. So, inportant people, do you think its a_ good_ idea?"

"It could be. For all we know it can go south." Rose said. "But we _need_ to give it a chance, we have to move forward."

"But things are nice the way they are." Libarian said, he didn't stand up. Dann wasn't sure he could. "Do we need to change?"

"What about the only human here? Miss Red?" Valerie did not want attention, that was why she had bee so quiet. She didn't appriciate it at all when the Reaper called on her.

"Me?"

"Are there any other humans here?" He asked dryly.

"Well-"

"Do you need to remind you that she's a ghost hunter?" Serena asked in a hot tone. "She hates ghosts, or did you come into the business to protect people?"

"She's still got an opinion." The prince said, the pirate behind him nodded. "I am curious to what the ghost hunteress thinks on all this."

"Life would be... Different." She said, being slow with her words whle trying not the offend anyone. "I couldn't imagine something like this happening, but... I'm open for change."

"There." Reaper said. "Is that all for the topic?"

"Yes. Sir." Danny didn't know why he added 'sir'. Maybe on some level he respected him. He was good enough for Clockwork to pick himself. He briefly wondered what type of person you were/will be to be picked.

"We will reschedule a decision until later, for everyone to think it over, then we vote." Since no one said anything. "Anyone else have something to propose?" Samson, the pirate second waved his hand in the air playfully, his companion Alexander face palmed at his behaviour. "Samson, if this is about those sea monkeys again because I swear..."

"Nah. That was fixed. Why haven't the rest of the Representatives come?" The Pirate asked, Danny again made a mental note to ask about the sea monkeys.

"We are curious as well." The Cowboy, Sheriff John said.

"The Infinity Desert is having a bit of a crisis after their Pharaoh was destroyed by their councillor." Frostbite informed.

"Damn, he seemed like a nice guy." Samson said, scratching the back of his neck.

"We know there hasn't been a Ghost king rep in years." The Prince said, suddenly half of the table, the half that Danny had not met until today, gave him a glance. A slight turn of the head to make sure he was still standing there. Still, it both annoyed him and made him want to hide at the same time. He was glad no one talked about him beating the Ghost King, no more talking about him. No more attention on him.

"The Zoo and The Warehouse didn't want to come, not after last time." Dora said.

"The Forgone Freeway almost never come, to many civil war's on who should be in charge." Pandora said, ignoring the looks a few of the members gave her.

"And about a dozen others that slipped my mind at the moment," Serena said. Danny paled slightly, and Valerie was trying not to freak out, the Ghost zone was far bigger then they originally thought. "Along with the smaller fractions."

"Long story short, we haven't had a full council since the first one. Minimum 12 sections of the zone to be called for a meeting for it to take place officially, and at least one of the keepers present." Reaper rapped up, "And if that's it..." No one had anything to say. He snapped his fingers and the hourglass turned down the sand rising quickly. "Truce is over when all the sand is at the top, blah blah, Stay in your seats, I'm leaving before everything goes free for all." With that he and the cat disappeared behind the large chair.

"Val, get ready to fly." She nodded, he guessed she was still freaked out of her brain slightly. Everyone had tensed, once again watching the sand in the hourglass.

"Great one, we'll cover you." Frostbite said, his second nodded. "Best to run instead of fight."

"Same here young one." Pandora said.

"Thanks guys." Danny smiled, Besides Dora, they were the only ghosts that actively made sure the other ghosts didn't annoy Danny too much. The Ghost zone was like a playground, and he suspected meeting members were the equivalent to the A-list.

"_Go!_" Someone yelled, Danny did not know who, but the sand had run out. He grabbed Val out of the chair and ducked in time to miss a few blasts that scorched the chair. In half a second it was chaos, Ecto blasts nearly blinded him.

"Get him!" Walker yelled, taking a grab at Danny, obviousy not caring about what the other ghost's had promised if something happened to Danny at he meeting. HWalker would have caught him if not for the blasts of white that knocked him of course.

"Good shot, Junior!" Sheriff John complemented, having drawn two pistols and shooting at the jailers, his son's guns were smoking and grinned at his successful shot.

"What is this, open season on Phantom?" Valerie screeched, as they dodged more blasts.

"Pretty close!"Danny yelled back.

"You piss of too many people for your own good!" She yelled.

"And don't you know it!" The laughed as they flew, after a few minutes they landed on an island.

"Don't you ever convince me to go to another meeting again, _blackmail or not_."

"_Making out_ photos." He reminded. "At least we can burn them now."

She laughed again. Yes, she did know that Vlad masters was Plasmius, and she made sure he knew. But she made it clear he would work for him on equal grounds as long as she got paid. She was sure Phantom knew he was half human too, but didn't know what to do, so she waited until something new came up instead. Her father _was_ getting trough to her.

"You're okay, Phantom." She grinned patting his shoulder while Danny caught his breath. "You're okay."

He smiled. He and Val have set up their partnership for almost a month and so far smooth sailing. It was almost like the time they dated. Val's detector beeped, he thought she put it on silent before, must have turned itself on again. Danny's ghost sense usually didn't work in the ghost zone, too many ghosts.

"Wait yourselves." A voice said, they both turned to "Sir Phantom, Miss Red. Calm yourselves, I bring words from my Queen Dora." He had a messenger bag, he pulled two envelopes out and pasted them to the named. "Invitations to her Kingdom."

"We've been invited to Dora's kingdom?" Danny asked aloud, taking the envelope and studying it, he hadn't heard from her since he, Sam and Tucker had taken down Aragon. From there, Dora had taken over the kingdom. Her first act of Queendom was making Sam, Tucker and Danny knights.

"A Ball?" Val said, opening the invite and reading it. The messenger nodded.

"A late corination celebration. By special request she asks for you to come a few hours early. She said to speak privately."

"Tell her we will be glad to come, and we will come early." Danny said, it sounded like Dora was going well in running the kingdom.

"Thank you Sir Phantom, I'll past the news." He started to leave. "Good luck." He added, before flying off.

"Phantom..." Val looked distressed, Danny didn't know why.

"Dora's okay! She's really nice He tried to assure her, but he was faced with a different reaction the he first thought.

"A ball? I have nothing nice to wear!" Sure, she was getting a ghost hunting check, but her dad was keeping that money in bank account solely for collage. If she wanted something nice, it was her nasty burger wage she used.

"Oh!" Danny mocked understood, grinning. "Girl." He thought of Val, she had changed a lot since the start of their partnership, more relaxed and didn't treat Danny like an enemy, more like a good friend.

"Jerk." She went over the invitation again. "It's on a Saturday night, I _should_ be able to convince my dad."

"Not if he knows you're going to the ghost zone for a party." Danny pointed out, Damon was lenient letting his daughter ghost hunt, but he had limits.'Bye dad! I'll be out all night at in the ghost zone for a party with hostile entities!'"

"Not if I tell him you promised to protect me. And if something does, he can beat the crap out of you!" She joked, but at the same time a little serious.

"You wouldn't!" he gasped, "We're not even dating and he's giving me a harsh third degree already!" Soon after they formed their truce, Danny had the pleasure of meeting Damon Grey as Phantom. It was there Danny learned were Val got her trigger finger and 'shoot first ask questions never' thing from.

"For some reason he trusts you." Val said, Danny had a suspicion about it, Damon may have trusted him because Danny kept his daughter out of as much harm as possible. The Ghost King incident popped to mind, and destroying the first suit may have been another reason. Never the less, Mr. Grey gave a mean glare with a 'touch my daughter or hurt her you're double dead' face.

"I'm just a likeable guy." Danny grinned, he suddenly frowned in thought. Should he tell Val now he was Danny Fenton as well? He seemed to had gained her trust, she was the one to offer up the truce in the first place, making him suspicious. _Did she know?_ But she showed no signs of knowing, or it could be an act. Making up his mind, he was going to tell her flat out, the secret was going to become harder to keep the closer he got to her again. "I'll race you to the portal!" He grinned and flew off.

"No fair! Split second advantage!" she laughed, flying after him.

He'll tell her soon, just not now.

**LINE BREAK**

A crack appeared in the metal of the thermos. A small, unnoticeable crack. Green misted poured out of it, weakly, a figure began to form out of it crouching on the floor. A man, strong muscles and tall. His blood red eyes shadowed with black underneath it. His skin blue, his gloved hand rubbed his head, clearly exhausted. There was green mist still surrounding him, he looked around and at it.

"That's going to take forever to reabsorb." He muttered. It was his energy, the thermos was slowly breaking him down into ectoplasm, he was lucky he broke out when he did. "I haven't been here for a while, Clockworks lair. No wonder about the god damn _ticking." _His eye twitched but quickly covered it, not like there was someone with him. On the wall were gold clockwork pieces, it took a moment for him to recognized them. "I don't think he'll notice one of these things gone." He plucked one of them from the wall, the CW annoyed him, but he would need it for the plan forming in his head.

He used the looking glass, looking at the present time. His younger self, as Phantom, laughing with _Valerie._ He smirked, in his timeline, he kept her alive to taunt her, he needed an opponent or else destroying the world would be boring. He grinned; remember watching Valerie break over the years as her world fell apart around her.

And looking at his younger self's face he knew the young hybrid wanted to tell her what he was, a monster, a freak, a being that hell couldn't keep and spat back out. And he saw the moment where he decided not to tell her. The screen split, surprising the elder phantom a little. Two choices? The main or the alternative? It only took him a second to choose. Why not make little Danny suffer for not speaking when he had the chance? He could see bubbles surrounding the screen, looking closer can see a little into the past. There had been a meeting, sme of the bubbles focused on his younger self others on ghosts he didn't know.

He noticed a pocket watch, opening it, he saw that the clock was broken, the glass smashed, on the other face was a mirror. He remembered this little device, the observants had sent their best assassin after him with one of these things. He remembered well how they burned.

"Look out little me. _I'm coming for you._"

**Okay, this will get complicated. Valerie knows that Vlad is a halfa and knows Phantom knows he's a halfa. Vlad knows that Val knows he's a Halfa and _thinks_ Val knows Danny's a Halfa too, but she doesn't. Phantom knows Val knows that Vlad is a Halfa, and knows Val suspects Phantom of being a Halfa, she does, but doesn't think he's Danny Fenton.**

**Valerie may seem out of character, but she's mellowing out, something I really wanted her to do in the series, the Alliance with Phantom may seem odd as well.**

**Have I mentioned that about half of season three doesn't exist here? The only exception is, Infimap ep, boxed up fury, and any mention of Vlad being mayor. The rest will be rewritten since I absolutely _hate_ season three, it just doesn't feel like it fits with the other two seasons, to superhero not supernatural enough.**

**Kindred spirits, de-stabilized, Urban Jungle and the weather episode have happened but with different events.**

**EDIT: Made chapter longer with almost all the ghost's speaking.**


	3. Chapter three: School

**Again, I've been busy with peliminary's and test's and final senior year at highschool *Breaths out* I've been working on my fics in my spare time along with my other original stories, Shots of a bystander chapters are coming soon.**

**Chapter 3: School**

"So how was your date with Valerie, Danny?" Jazz asked the next morning. Last night her brother was out the whole night, he told her about Vlad blackmailing him and the Huntress. Vlad actually helped with their parents and sent them on a week cruise, with him off coarse keeping an eye out for the young Fentons. They had arrived home that morning and luckily bought the story of him sleeping over at Tuckers.

Danny choked on his orange juice. "It wasn't a date! It was a _meeting, _a ghost meeting."

"Right, and how was this meeting?" He did not like his sisters tone.

"Horrifying. Everyone that hates you, everyone that's heard of you, looking down on you and watching your every move, and about ten seconds later tried to blast you out of existence."

"I would be scared too." Jazz admitted. "And?"

"I told them the plan." Now it was Jazz's turn to choke.

"Seriously? _Seriously_?" She asked, "How did they take it?" Jazz was there when the representative came to their house late at night to talk to their parents about the portal, she overheard them speaking of the expansion project. She was supposed to be clueless about it,

"It's being voted on at a later date." Danny took some more juice out of the fridge. "But by the looks of it, majority is _yes_."

"Wow." She gasped, exicted. "This is going to be so _big_." She said, one of the first humans to get word back, one of the only humans to even know of this plan. "How do you think the government is going to present this to living people?"

"Actually, I never thought of that." Danny frowned, trying to think of something. Ghost took it well, other then Walker no one showed complete hate of the Idea. umans on the other hand, were a different story. Ajusting to the ghost zone had taken his parents years to actually step inside, and they've only got inside twice for data collecting.

"It's going to be a big step, the future is going to be so weird!" Jazz smiled.

"Oh yeah, in a few weeks, I'll be going to the ghost zone again." Danny said, "A ball with Dora, she's making her queenly debut or something and wants me to be there."

"With Valerie?" His sister teased.

"Yes…" He said in the same tone. "Jealous?"

"Who am I to steal your work wife from you?" She grinned.

"_Pardon_?" he asked, "Do you come up with these terms or do you have a dictionary full of them?"

"Jeeze Danny, it only means she's your partner, it's named so because the partnership works like a relationship." she smirked.

"The difference?" he asked, but caught himself. "Wait! Shush! Forget I asked!" He grabbed some bacon from the table. "Going to school!"

"I'll drive you!" She got up with her bag, it looked absolutly stuffed with books.

"No it's okay I'll _Fly_ was his unspoken word, but Jazz cut him off.

"No seriously, _I'll drive you_." She was smilling a little too much, it freaked Danny out a litte.

"Hi kids! Have you finished breakfast yet?" Their mum popped out of no where, Danny jumped and nearly dropped his bacon.

"Yes mum!" They said together.

"Have you seen our new invention?" Their dad asked, a moment behind his wife, he proudly waved a satilite dish in the air. "We call it the Fenton Grounder!"

"…What does it do?" Danny asked, both curious and humouring his father. Though keeping tabs on the family inventions was a good idea, never knew when they came in handy.

"It give ghosts a gravitational hold on earth, that way, they can't fly away!" Jack grinned, "Though, we haven't tested it the theroy is-"

"As soon as we get permission to hook it up, ghost will b dropping out from the sky! It would be so much easier catching them!"

"Hey sis, how about that ride to school?"

**LINE BREAK**

Inside the cramped car, Danny was pouting, looking longingly at the sky. He never realized how figetly he was in closed spaces now a days, probably because he was close to suck-you-in-the-thermos-Jazz for six hours. Or he just didn't like the car.

"They're watching the skies Danny, it you were to take off in front of the house they would see you. Not good." His sister explained to him, not that he needed it explained, he could have figured that out on his own.

"I won't be able to fly anymore?" Danny asked. Again, he found himself looking up into the sky, birds, planes, the occasional ghost. He wanted to be up there among the clouds. It was cold the higher he went, it was oddly... nice. He felt at home in the sky.

"Aw it will take a few days to get the mayor to accept it. So no worries yet." Jazz smiled. Danny made a face, he knew secretly she was analysising him, tryig to figure out how a half dead kid thought, the damage done to his poor fragile mind, is it effecting his with his every move every thought-

_Stop that, she's your sister. _He shock the misrable thoughts from his head, actually surprised from the vensom of his head. If he had to trust someone, it was his sister, his friends, and no matter what Sam said Valerie. Just them.

"Still. I might be able to fly soon…" Jazz noticed the down cast look from her brother. She frowned slightly, more in sympathy then anything else. According to her books, most teenagers had a reality escape, something they do that lets them forget their troubles and be happy, some drew, some wrote, some video games, her little brother had chosen flight. She couldn't help but think of the devastating consequence of not being able to have his escape.

"BUT, as soon as the stupid thing is up it's going to get a very annoyed older sister knocking it off its tower." She saw him smile. "Nobody grounds you by our parents!"

"But it was made by them, technically they _are_ grounding me." Jazz made a face, getting the weird logic behind that. He grinned. "Thanks, Jazz."

"Hey Danny!" He heard Sam call. He got out of the tiny car as she came to a stop at the front of the school.

"See ya, I'll find a parking spot." Jazz said, not waiting for an answer and drove off.

"Hey Danny, no flying today?" Tucker asked.

"My parents are apparently watching the skies, so I couldn't fly." Danny explained, he sighed. "And I probably won't be flying soon."

"Why?" Sam asked, not much else to ask.

"My parent's made a new invention. The Fenton grounder."

"Your parents are grounding you more than usual." Tucker smirked, Danny shot him a look.

"It has something to do with ghost having a different gravity thingy than humans, it suppose to target an ecto signature and change their gravity so they can't fly." Danny said, A blue wisp escaped his mouth. "Lovely."

"We have tem minutes to school starts, so be quick." Tucker said while looking at his watch. Danny Nodded and dived into his lock, abit making sure no one was watching. He transformed and took up to the sky.

He breathed in a large lung full. it haddn't been long, only four hours out of the sky. Maybe the prospect of having it taken away had really worried him. He looked around to try and spot the ghost, no screaming, not ghost blasts. For a ghost sense it was really boring.

Then a second passed and Box ghost went wizzing past him, not even stopping to throw somethign at him.

"Box ghost? Geeze! It hasn't even been a day since the bloody meeting!" Danny cried out.

"I, _the box ghost!_ Was trapped in the cylinder container! I missed the Meeting!" he said in his usually loud tone, Danny raised a confused eyebrow.

"That wasn't me…" Danny was sure he had emptied the thermos, wait, if he didn't who let him out? He felt panicked. "That wasn't-!"

"_**Phantom, locked on!**_" He heard a mechanical voice say, he quickly pin pointed the voice to the Fenton Family RV, a satellite was pointed at him,

Without time to move, He felt his stomach launched. He felt the air around him start to push on him, particularly down.

He couldn't fly, panicking he screamed. The ground was getting closer, and he couldn't think of a way out of this. What happens when he hits the ground? Would he go splat like a normal person? Would he die a second time? He swore.

He felt a pair of hands catch him, he heard his shoulder pop. He was on his stomach on Val's board. Dazzed, it took a few moments for him to regeister Val talking to him

"What happened? You just started She sounded concerned, _concerned._ Mellowing cream or _something_ because the attitude was freaking him out, the whole thing was freaking him out, dropping out of the sky freaked him out.

"Huntress, you got the ghost kid!" A voice said, Danny tried looking down, but fond an overwelming fear of falling off. They were about three stories up.

"Val…" He said weakly, His arm hurt, was it possible to break Ghost bones?

"Huntress! Down here!" TV cameras? crowded street? Crazy Ghost hunting parents? Not a good sign, why were they there in the first place? _Jack and Maddie Fenton finally find a way to ground the ghost boy premedently! _There were still a lot of Anti ghost people that would like him out of the skies. The cheering was deafening almost enough from him to bloke his ears is one of them wasn't broken. Was he having a panic attack? It felt like one.

"Fenton's, I don't think you've noticed." She said, she stared down the TV camera, intending for the whole town to hear what she wanted to say. Danny couldn't help but see the paralells, she was freaked out about talking to the ghosts, however now, on home field advantage she was doing fine. "Phantom and I have a partnership. I'm not hunting him anymore." A silence as she talked, then a gasp rippled through the crowd. She turned to the Fentons. "AND I'm not letting you hurt him. He's a _weird_ ghost, but a good guy."

Danny smiled. Finally, she trusted him. Telling her was coming soon, he couldn't stop it now that they were partners. She would hate him keeping it form her if he put it off for to long.

"And I'm not letting anything hurt her." Danny choose to speak up. "It's better with two people able to get ride of the ghosts. And Mr Red! don't worry, I'll make sure she doesn't run into any walls." He snickered to himself as the crowd was pulled between confusion, anger and confusion.

"You did not just do that!" Valerie mock gasped. "Make the board invisable _please_ so we can leave without being followed."

He did so, while the crowd scrabble below them they made their way back to the school. Landing on the roof Valerie depowered the armor, Danny sat next to a wall. Beathing deeply. He knew Val was looking at him oddly, first time close up she saw how promidently he used his lungs.

"Thanks, Val." He said after a few moments.

"No problem." She said slowly. "I've beening to ask Phantom, do you just live on the school roof? Because you got to Boxy quickly, and I'm here at school, so I thought..." she trailed off, not knowing how to word her thoughts.

"Well, I'm only here on week days and daylight." He said, the full truth, not even a lie. "For some reason the schools a big haunting target."

"Oh yeah you're going to hate me for this." She said, holding his sore arm. He whinched.

"For what?" He asked. She was still holding his arm. In a moment she used her other arm to pop it back into place. He yelped in alarm and pain.

"Sadist!" He muttered as he rubbed his arm, it still hurt, but not much as before. He wasn't even sure I would heal if he left it like that.

"Weird ghost with breakable bones!" She shot back, he whiched again, she had already began to go for the stair way. "I'm going to class, I'll see you later."

"Valerie." He blurted out, She turned confused. He would have hit himself for sounding so anxious.

"Yeah, Phantom?"

_No backing out now. _He thought. He swallowed.

"After school, meet me back here okay? I have to tell you something." He said quickly, she was able to hear him as she nodded.

"Sounds like a date." She grinned.

"Not a date!" He huffed, he felt his cheeks turn red. "Important thing that's important!"

"Date!" She had the final word as she ran down the stairs. The bell had rung, as soon as she was gone Danny flew down into his locker and out again and dashed to class. Today was a good day, he got there without a detention.

**Link Break**

**Somewhere High and close.**

Dan couldn't take the shameless _flirting _his younger half and Valerie were doing. He flew passed the lockers, all the students were finally in class after such an eventful day. He pasted a familiar locker, he remembered what was inside and grinned. A plan had formulated, and by tomorrow His younger half will be breaking in two.

He felt the air shift around him, it was a strange feeling. Suddenly, every noise stopped. No faint ticking of clocks or students or heartbeats. Dan didn't flater.

"Finally had the guts to face me old man?" He asked, turning around. The Ghost of Time floated a few metres away from in, changing into his old man form as he spoke.

"Daniel, you have no idea what you're going to do to the timelines." Dan rolled his eyes. 'Breaking time' this, 'chaos' that, does this guy have anything new to say?

"I don't care." He said. "Since I exist, I can really do what I want, and what I want is for little Danny to enbrace his dark side."

"Then you will have a rival for power, Daniel." Clockwork pointed out.

"You are the only one that still exists that calls me that." Dan growled. "Only because I can't touch you." Or he would have strangled him long, long ago.

"Listen to me, come back to my tower so I can find you somewhere to haunt and destroy, but not here or _now._"

Dan pretended to think it over, one hand under his chin.

"Nah. I like being a wild card, and I distinctly remember another wildcard, still young, at this school and right for the picking." Dan grinned, rivaling the cheschire cat himself.

"You're blocking my vision for this timeline, however I know who you are talking about." He said, reverting into a child. "Bad idea, you killed her in the other timeline-

"It was very bloody." Dan reminded.

"-And that was fine, using her here is going to pull this time into chaos."

"Why do you think I'm doing it then?" Dan asked, "Really, shits and giggles all the way."

"Time in." Clockwork said, pressing the button on his staff, knowing there was nothing he could do at the moment. Warning current Danny would be hazardous. So he had to form his own plan with little time to spare, a feeling he was no likeing on bit.

**Else where**

She gasped loudly, breathing in deep breaths. Why did it feel like she had been holding her breath?

"Are you okay?" her friend whispered to her.

"N-no." She answered, felling faint. It felt like the time of the C.A.T exams, the whole time it was hard to breath and even think, Everything felt so _wrong_ somehow. The people blurred like they were walking at high speed, but not moving at all, Words slurred as they spoke, she couldn't understand a single word. She thought she was having a nervous breakdown. "I'm going to the bathroom!" She yelled out. She ran out, looking for the closest bathroom. She wanted to throw up, she could barely walk stright. At the taps she washed her face, almost pushing her whole head into the sink. When she resurfaced she let the water drip of her face.

"They're not panic attacks." She told her reflection, delicate latino feature looking back at her. "I know that much. _Why is this happening?_"

**When you think you got everything, you publish it and suddenly when you go look at it EVERY SINGLE mistake is glaring at your face, *head desks* thanks Surreal Prince for telling me, Glad you're interested.**

**I know there are a few grammer mistakes, and for some wierd reason, 'ing' is going 'ign' so 'runign' and the like, my finger memory is off, not cool Dx**

**Everything comes together in chapter 4, hopefully. can you guess who the person is? She somehow wiggled into the main story. Next chapter for details.**


	4. Chapter four: Attack

**Twice in a row? wow!**

**Chapter 5 Attack**

For the rest of the day, Danny was trying to figure out the best way to finally break the ice to Valerie. He thought over several senarios. One was just powering down in front of her. But that would make her think he could shape shift. the other plans were similar, but ended with Valerie confused.

"Danny, are you sure you want to do this man?" Tucker asked again, Danny nodded, not even tired of the question.

"Tucker, she hangs out with us now. I think locking her out of the loop is both mean and bad in the long run."

"Well... I don't know anymore actually." Sam said, both boys raised their eyebrows. It wasn't a secret that Sam still disliked Valerie. "I thought she was pulling your tail to trick you, but after today when she could have easily got you..." She took a breath. "I trust her."

"Thank you Sam!" He hugged her, she wished he wouldn't let go. "That means a lot to me, it really does." But it wasn't for her, it was for Valerie. Danny stilled like the Hunteress, out of some misguided thought of her being 'not so bad.' As the bell went he dashed off. Leaving both his friends behind.

"...You're lying." Tucker stated as soon as Danny was out of earshot. Sam had a blank expression.

"Duh." She said. "Danny is the most clueless person I have ever met, but he's going to go through with this anyway so might as well seem like I'm with the plan instead of against it."

"Does that mean you're getting over him?" He questioned. She paused for a moment and stormed off. Tucker sighed. Sam was moody, Danny was busy with ghost things. The invitation to Dora's Ball wieghed heavily in his pocket. He wanted to support Danny, but might not be welcome as the two ghost hunters 'hung out.' He wasn't even sure Danny knew Sam and Tucker had been invited. He didn't ask. Again, he knew he was busy, but couldn't help feeling left in the dust.

"No one ask's me anything anymore." He said to himself, getting his books from his locker. His best friend was becoming less relient on his tech skills, and Sam was growing more distant. If felt like Danny had died, really died and they were in the process of getting over it. He didn't like the feeling.

**88888**

Later that day, Danny sat in Lancer's office. The principal was away on business an he was filling in. He had done all the protocalls, called his parents (didn't answer the phone) and then a second contact, which patched him to an office in Wisconsin. He figured it was a wrong number.

"Detention?" Danny repeated, not believing his ears. He took his hand away from his bruising shoulder. "But he hit me first!"

"Daniel, you practically Judo threw him across the hall. You're lucky you're not getting suspended along with Dash." Lancer explained. "For the next two weeks you'll spend after school and Lunch time here."

If A board director haddn't been visiting, and wasn't turning into the hall way when Dash attempted to once again lock Danny in his locker, and didn't witness the self defence himself, Dash would have been on his merry way and Danny would be emptying his locker. In hindsight, it covered his shoulder injury as Dash had slammed him into his locker door by his aching limb. It was half reflex from the pain, and another half that wanted to see the bully get a taste of his own medicene.

"I have somewhere to be." He muttered. _Damn it! He couldn't just leave her waiting on the roof._

"Danny, I have a question." Danny met Lancer's eyes. Lancer paused, he never noticed the fire in them before, he actually looked angry, frusterated he had seen, not actually anger. "Why did you throw him?" He was going to say hit, but hitting ment using your fists. Throwing was th proper term for what had happened.

"He hit me."

"Why did you hit back _this_ time?" He wasn't cut out to be a therapist, but the least he could do is find out what was wrong. Danny never struck him as violent, even when he was being pushed around. But it took a lot of courage to stand up to someone twice your size and actually dislocate his jaw and fracture a collar bone. His football season is over this year. And putting Danny in detention was a good way off making sure the other players didn't come for his blood for taking out their quarter back.

"I'm sick of him, two years he's had it coming, do you notice he doesn't bully people his size? Nope! Only those smaller then him. He's a coward." Danny huffeed.

"What's the straw that broke the camels back then?"

"What?" Why were people using terms Danny didn't understand?

"What pushed you so far to hit him? Because you're a strong boy, you've proved it today, and a lot of self restriant. Something's changed. Family trouble?"

_Valerie. Valerie. Valerie. Valerie. _Danny mentally shook his head and pushed her out of his head. But Lancer had brought up a point. He WAS going to tell Valerie, today, and nothing will stop him, not a jock, not Lancer.

"You know my family right? just the same old thing. Though _Uncle_ Vlad is appearing more in me and Jazz's Life."

"'Jazz and I'." He corrected. "The millionare?" Lancer asked, maybe that wasn't a wrong number.

"Yeah..." Danny rolled his eyes. Lancer detected a tiny hint of annoyance. "We might as well get this over with."

Lancer paused.

"Starting tomorrow, you come back here and you mark tests." He said, and let the words sink.

"Wait, so I'm allowed to go now?"

"Yes." Lancer said. A rare moment of charity. The kid needed a break.

"Right now?"

"Yes."

"_Woo!_" And Danny was out of his seat, out the door and out of sight in under a second. Lancer once again paused to make sure he comperhended what happened.

"I'll have to ask him what was so important." Lancer muttered.

Danny transformed in the empty hallway and tried to fly straight up to the roof. He had forgotten that his flight was disabled, instead he turned invisble and made his way upstairs. He phased through the door and out in the open air.

"Sorry I'm late!" He said, grinning. Only ten minutes, she would have waited. He looked across the roof, no one in sight. The grin fell from his face and formed into a frown. He saw smoke raise at the front of the school. He phased through the floor to the enterance, he felt his stomach do a turn.

Engraved into the school's wall was a message carved with ecto blasts, still smoking. At the front enterance below and on the stairs was a orange piece of cloth. He picked it up and examined it, panic raising in him. It was burnt and smelt like ectoplasm, and blood fleckles in one corner. Valerie's bandana with fresh blood.

**GET TO THE CLOCKTOWER IN TEN MINUTES OR SHE DIES.**

_This was written a month ago, and since I just did an entire study session and still caffinated, i'm putting this up. There was a second part, i cut it to work on it else where, and can't remember where else where was..._

**EDIT: Spelling and Grammer as much as possible, and added a few things, not too noticable though. Other then the fight being played out more. I find it amusing to image Danny grabbing Dash with one arm and throwing him across the hall. With witnessess.**


	5. Chapter five: Clues

_**GRAND THEFT AUTO DANNY!**_

**Eh, found it on the wrong hard drive.**

Getting past the no flight disability was easy. He ran on the road and waved his hands over his head. Car's beeped and served not to hit him.

"DAMN IT SOMEONE STOP!" Danny screamed. He saw a motor bike come his way. He put his hands out. Luckily the guy stopped. He noticed his DP insignia on the fuel tank. At least he will have little trouble.

"Dude, major emergency! I need to borrow you're bike right now or friend gets killed horribly!"

"Can't you fly?" He asked. Danny wanted to scream in frustration at time being wasted.

"Grounded!" He yelled. The Man got of the bike, Danny quickly got on, but not before the man plonked his helmet on Danny's head.

"No need to die a second time." He heard him say before Danny accelerated. The Clock Tower was only a few minutes away if he sped. He had to figure out what to do next, why does the kidnapper want him to go the clock tower? Who was this kidnapper? Defiantly a ghost. He could think of no one that would set a challenge up like this, Ghost writer would have made a poem. Skulker would have made him fight something. Spectre... would have killed her to get to Danny. A chill went through him. Blood was on the bandana, she was injured.

The road was blocked to the clock tower. Danny went intangible through the blocks, police man were monitoring the road and shouted when he went past. He examined the tower, the face was smashed and a box no bigger then a shoe box dangled from one of the hands. He quickly got of the bike and phased past the police men as they took their guns out.

"Sorry! In a big hurry!" He climbed the stairs as fast as he could. Phasing through doors and finally the trapdoor that lead to the face. Inside the fall sun was casting large shadows. Two people were inside, one held a long pole with a hook on it and the other had the box in his hands. The box was rapped in white paper with a pink ribbon. A small card was tied to the wrapping.

"Hey!" The man with the hook said in surprise. No one was so scared of Danny anymore; it felt odd and nice at the same time.

"The box is for me, No time to argue." Danny said, taking it from the woman's hands and looking at the card. In Ink and bold letters was familiar hand writing, he had no time to dwell over it.

**Disable the Fenton Portal in the Next ten minutes or she will die.**

He ripped opened the box, in a flash of light he felt like his eyeballs were on fire. He yelled in alarm and dropped the box to cover his eyes. Went his vision cleared he saw another note float out of the box, along with a gold bangle which defiantly belonged to the red huntress.

**Without intangibility.**

He tried making his hand intangible, nothing, just like flying his power was gone. Something red was attached to him, he didn't noticed it before, it might have come from the now empty box. It was like ectoplasm and like he had a backpack attached to the front of him, only small. Was this the thing blocking him?

The two police officers were out for the count, the light might have scrambled their brains a bit. It was nothing like he had ever seen before, the technology was advanced, way more advanced then his parents have ever made, maybe even Technus!

"Freeze Phantom!" Two police officers were standing over the trapdoor with ectoguns. Standard issue now by order of the scared mayor, politics weren't on his side, but the younger generation was. Like the biker that let him borrow his bike. Young guy, early twenties and reminded him of Johnny.

"No time to deal with you people!" He growled. His eyes still hurt and now had two of his basic powers gone. He charged up ectoblasts, "I don't want to hurt you so get out of the way!"

The lowered their guns, Danny let the energy in his palms fade, but didn't do what he wanted, instead, the ectoblasts unleashed into the floor and destroyed the wooden floor under him. He fell down a floor, landing on his back. A shot of pain when through his body, he gasped in pain. He knew he had no time to recover. He got up, stumbling closer to a wall. He shrugged of the pain as much as possible and started to run down the stairs.

Police were in his way, he dodge them by jumping down the side and through the centre of the stair well, he didn't want to hurt them or be distracted, it took maybe three minutes for him to get up to the face, and that was with his cheat code. Now, he knew he was taking far too long. More then three minutes and home was five minutes away. Who every was the one screwing with him had planed every step, timed him. If everything went to plan he should be able to get home and disable the portal, that's if his parents weren't home.

But if this ghost hurt Val, they were twice dead.

On the last floor he turned invisible so he didn't have to deal with police officers. The first of the news van's were driving in. Lancer Thunder got out of one of them. The bike was guarded by two officers, going over it and the numberplate. Danny instead decided to take an abandon police car. He felt very criminal when he hot wired it. Hotwiring a car was one of the weirdest skills his dad has taught him, after he had lost the keys to the FFAV the hundred time and was in a hurry.

"_Don't use this skill for Evil, Danny! You'll get arrested!"_ He grinned as the car roared to life.

_Great dad._ He thought, and pulled the seat up. He paused as he looked over the controls and gasped.

_IT'S FRICKING STICK!_ Danny screamed in his head. He got out again and looked for anything that wasn't a manual. He had to get the bike back quickly. Invisible, he pulled the police man out of the way and to the ground. The woman was savvy and quickly shot at the place Danny was, getting on the bike. The shot grazed his shoulder.

He was forced visible, ignoring the pain he grabbed the gun from the woman, who mistakenly stepped closer. He pushed them both back with an expanded shield, they fell over backwards but no harm came to them. The bike started and he was again on he road.

Danny could almost feel the timer ticking, getting louder which each second that passed. The roar of the bike didn't drown it out. His heart was beating fast, he knew he had less then five minutes to get home. He knew that police car's and above a helicoptor were chasing him.

"Danny!" Jazz exclaimed. The TV was on with live footage of him entering the house from cameras on the helicoptor.

"Jazz no time Red kidnapped on countdown!" No full sentances, only what was important.

"Wait!" She said, he kicked down the basement door. A net came his way; he dodged down and rolled the stairs. Looking up e say his parents armed and standing right in front of the ghost portal.

"Get back Ghost Punk!" Jack yelled. "You're not touching the portal!"

They were here to defend their lives work, and might even put their life on the line for it. The cops must have warned them about Danny coming, since he left the notes at the clock tower.

"No time!" Danny shrieked, he took the chance and blasted them both out of the way. They flew back into the opposite wall. The hazmat suits protected them from the worst effects of ecto burns. He grabbed a Fenton Gooper and shot at his parents, pinning them to a wall quicker then they could move.

"Pest!" Maddie growled at him. He ignored it and made his way to the computer.

"The switch is inside." Danny paled. Shaking as he franticly tried to find a shut down command on the portal. He should have thought and become human before coming down here. He needed to close it with his fingerprint, and if he did it in front of his parents they would find out his secret. His secret, or Valerie? _NO MORE THINKING DAMNIT!_

He pulled the ecto converter out and let it smash to the ground, then going to the generators and smashing them. Electricity sparked, he flinched violently but continued to blast it. The Portal was still open, he gritted his teeth, what else could he do?

The plug.

Still connect to the wall, a single power cord generated the portal, it was now protected with a plastic dome. Danny pulled it off and examined the cord, it had a head that was screwed to the wall, he remembered his parents hand put an electric ecto shock through the head, so he couldn't touch it. He had to pull it out.

"No!" one of his parents yelled. It was like torture, taking the thing they worked so hard on and destroyin it in front of their eyes.

He held the cord with both hands and pulled hard, it stretched. He got a better handle and pulled again, his feet up against the wall to try and get the stupid thing out. The third pull was successful, the cord snapped like a rubber band. The Portal hissed and exploded in steel and light. Again, Danny was blown back. Green smoke filled the room and bits of steel flew everywhere he threw a shield over his parents but not over himself, getting small rips in his Hazmat.

The smoke claered and a gasping hole remained, loose sparks of electricity came from wires that iluminated the know darkened room. The lab wasn't just a mess, it was rubble. The thing that half killed him was broken, scorched and made him numb. The ecto reaction hit him hard, he could feel it pulseing through him like a second heart beat.

A Wine bottle rolled across the floor and hit his foot. "Where the hell?" He muttered. Inside was a small piece of paper and a small square divice. He smashed it on the ground and grabbed the two things. One was a ticket to a football game, the other was a metal box with a button on it. He stole a glance at the label. _**"Wisconsin Red Wine."**_

On the back of the Ticket in the same familiar writing"**_Fifteen minutes._**"

"Packers Game tonight Wisconsin." He breathed. Vlad was supposed to pick them up to watch it. He was sore, tired and out of steam. He wouldn't be able to get to Wisconsin in time, not unless he went through the ghost portal- _dumb thought_. But the spectre speeder can get really fast.

He ran, but found time to mumble "I'm sorry." To his struggling parents. He didn't dare to look at them.

88888888888888

Invisability was the only thing he had left, and he was taking full advantage of that skill by passing security and fans. He was nearly out of time. He quickly made his way to the middle of the Stadium. Ths had been a show. A large show for someone, the large writing on te school, the broken clock tower. Large, attention grabbing things. So Danny played along and tried to be attention grabbing too. He turned visable and shot ectoblasts into th sky. He heard cheers, maybe they thought it was apart of the entertainment or just because it was Danny Phantom.

"I'm here!" He yelled. In a moment the giant screen had a close up off his face. "I've done what you've asked, give her back!" He knew microphones wouldn't reach him, he hoped the culprit was close. "Plasmius! Is this some type of sick joke? Because I'm-"

A portal opened close to him, he prepared for the worst to come out. The top of his suspect list was Vlad, why else would be the last place be Wisconsin? A figure slumped out, he reconized the firgure, and the figure wasn't moving.

"Red!" What happened? She was suited up, but her helmet was gone. Her hair was over her face, blood was across her hair line. He noticed she was running a hot, he could feel it through his glove. "Crap, hospital. But questions, your secret." He didn't even bother with full sentances, or one's that made sense.

"We wouldn't want that, would we?" A voice trembled the stadium. He heard screams of alarm.

_Uh oh._ He remembered that voice very clearly.

"Hello little me." The Darker version of him said. Floating above the grass behind Danny. "We don't want any interferance, do we?" He threw his hands up and a blue ecto shield went up and covered the whole stadium. "The humans can't leave, we can't leave until someone is dead."

"I've posioned the huntress." he said, then waved a needle with a glowing red liquid. "And here is the antidote." He dangle it playfully in front of Danny. "Doesn't look like she has long, does she? You'll have to explain to her father specifically why she died on your watch, when you _promised_ him she will be safe." He smirked. _That stupid **smirk!**_

"_Bastard!"_ Danny stood up and in front of Valerie and began to inhale for a ghost wail. No holding back with him, so he went for the big guns.

Dan flung his hand forward. A shot of ectoplasm covered his mouth, the blast strong enough to send him flying back. He tried to pull it off but was stuck like glue.

"No game braking wail for you." The Dark figure said, wagging his finger. Danny muffled a growl. He could see that Danny's eyes were on the antidote, watching it like a hawk "Oh, you want this? You have to fight for it." He taunted.

Danny jumped up to try and land a punch on his darker self's face. He easily dodged and shot the younger Phantom away.

"Ah, Ah. Not me." He pulled a thermos from behind his cape. In a flash Vlad appeared, dazzed, but no harm on him.

"Last challenge. Kill Vlad in less than 10 minutes and I will give Red the Antidote and save her life."

Vlad or Val? Easy choice. He leaped forward before Vlad can realize what was happening.

**Action packed, so I'l leave the fight to next time. Someone please tell me if somethings out of place. Brain not working well.**

**For Shot's of a bystander fans: Guess who the biker is. It's also become hard to write, since I wrote from my experiances that would fit danny's situation, or didn't need a drastic change. But I have something now, keep your eyes peeled!**

**EDIT: Fixed the sentances, I don't know what happened but the last time I saved it may not have gone through. **


	6. Chapter six: Fight

**Quickly while I'm in homework limbo! Actually, I have a shit load to do, it's always these times my muses come back.**

**Chapter 6: Fight**

The day had been going fine. The day was sunny, the packers were playing, and by his spies word the meeting had gone pretty well. He had smiled to himself in his office when he heard how perfect Daniel had given the presentation, if Daniel put his mind to it, he could be just as much as a genius as his mother and sister. But a teenager got distracted, and playng hero would be an even bigger distraction. Didn't he watch spiderman? The same happened to him.

His phone beeped and he pressed the recieve button.

"_Mr. Masters, Danny is here for the game._" His secretary said in her monotone voice. Daniel and his sister came to his office often enough for Anna to be on nick name bases with them. It irked him slightly that she was able to get on good terms with them in less then a month ten he has in a year.

_That is odd._ He thought. Daniel was early. He didn't think he would actually come, even when his parents thought it was a good idea. He had planed for a limo to pick them up at home.

"Shouldn't you be at school?" He asked, taking another look at the clock.

"Yeah, but I told them who my uncle was and the let me off early." He said. Something was wrong, he saw Daniel, he heard him. Nothing seemed wrong. But a feeling in his gut festered as seconds passed by. Vlad put his gaurd up, but couldn't think of a good reason why. Danny wouldn't attack here, woud he?

Without warning, Daniel shot the clock of the wall, it fell to the ground smoking and broken. Vlad stood up in both shock and confusion and transformed. No worries, no camera's were installed, well, they were fo show, they weren't actually connected to anything.

"Why did you do that?" Vlad demanded. This wasn't like Daniel, not at all, sure, Vlad had reports of him blasting things for practice or fun, but they were useless objects no one wanted. The clock was innocent.

"The ticking was annoying me." He said, like it was so obvious. "And thank you for your co-operation." he said.

"What he asked, out of no where the blasted fenton thermos was in his hands and pointed at him. He had made it a point to make his office ecto proof, the door was the only way out, and Daniel was standing in front of it.

The next thing he was consious of was being at the football stadium, the lights bright and the grass under him soft.

He didn't have a chance to stand up as a figure tackled him. It took a moment to regiester who it was. Daniel's mouth was covered in Ecto goop, along with a stange red ectospasm shcaped like a box attached to his chest. He charged up a blast and directed it at his chest and fired. Vlad sunk into the ground and came back up in the sky. A blue dome circled the entire stadium, trapping the spectators in. He knew better then to touch it.

"Daniel, Stop!"

Danny couldn't answer him, but it was clear he didn't want to talk. He put up shields as Danny attacked with ectoblasts, extremely raw and powerful ones that exploded on shield impact. as soon as the shield was down Danny sent a shower of icce shards his way. Very sharp ice shards that if he didn't fly up and miss them would have done some serious damage.

Daniel was intending to kill him. Actually _kill_ him. It was then he finally spotted a figure standing in the middle of the field, an adult man with a body builder shape dressed in white and black. His resemblance to Danny couldn't go unnoticed. Was it him that trapped him in the thermos? Th older Daniel Grincoud split his face in half.

Vlad realized he wasn't getting out of this without first defeating Daniel. Easy, he's done it before.

_Weaknesses. _He thought._ Daniel'__s weaknesses._

_Hot headed, not as powerful as me, favours his ice powers, cocky, takes a moment to make a horrible pun, not focused,__ doesn't expand on current powers.__ Would stop battle to save his friends. _Which he has taken advantage of before. Daniel sometimes made his weaknesses to easy to see.

There were several things the changed now. Danny couldn't talk, no distracting puns that made split second openings on his defence. Danny had a fire in his eyes that told him Danny was completly focused on killing him.

_Can't fly or go_ _intangable._ He noticed, no flying after him or going intangable to avoid the few shots Vlad threw at him._ Stay high and try and hit him._

That turned out not to be a good idea. When Danny realized that he couldn't reach him he through his hands to the ground and fired and ectoblast, it set him up via Newton's law. Vlad moved out of the way, but Danny was already blasting. He went higher as Danny went down, saving his fall was an ice slide he quickly created.

He sent ice shards Vlad's way, two managed to scrape him and draw blood. He chose to stay intangable to avoid the shards.

He noticed Valarie on the ground a distance away, not moving. A ice shard was going her way, both Hybrids noticed at the same time and both put a shield up around her, pink and green mixed together before it faded.

"You nearly hit her!" He turned to Danny, floating closer to him, risky. More shards appeared around him ready to go flying. He threw his hand out to indicate the watching people who couldn't escape. "Stop Daniel, you'll hurt people." It was like a magic word. That meant a lot to the him, Vlad knew it was another thing he took advantage off. _Question his actions._ It drove him wild.

Daniel didn't seemed to have realized that. He froze in his place as the ice shards fell to the ground abandon of power. Vlad knew the young boy was freaking out over being too reackless. Realizing the ice shards intended fo Vlad and his missed shots could hit anyone else. The staium was huge, but eventually the damage could not be confined to the area. It they had been flying, much more damaged would have occured.

_Would stop a battle to protect his friends._ Vlad summoned a giant purple block and made it crash down on Danny, a green shield circled him. But Vlad wan't lettng go of his advantage and let it fall again, the force making a dent in the ground and pushing Danny further down, he heard cracks or breking bone. A third attack had the shield go down. He cold see how exhausted Daniel was. Even before the battle had started he looked like he had been in a war zone. He fell to his knees, unable to fight any longer. It didn't stop him from trying to get right back up. Vlad admired how determined Daniel was, but didn't have time to comment on it.

"Stay down, Daniel." Vlad said landing near the crater. He blasted Danny's face, the goop disinergrated. "Explain."

"He's A blast stopped him from saying anything else. He became unconsious and slumped in the crater.

"Not much to explain." The Daniel look-a-like walked over. Blowing his fist of smoke. "I made a deal with him. He kills you for Red's life. Just before I let you out, it didn't take him to long to makethe desision."

"What did you do to her?" He demanded, ignoring all the informtion that wasn't inportant. The new Enemy tisked.

"Posioned her." He said, shrugging like it was nothing, he waved the antidote infrnt of him. "She's only got a few minutes left before the cure becomes useless."

"Give her the Antidote." He ordered, readying an ectoblast. He was one of the strongest ghosts this millenia, this fake was nothing.

"Or what? It's not like you care for her." He scoffed. Vlad didn't like how he judged him. Sure, she was a pawn in a game. But not one to be sarificed.

"Daniel would kill me if I didn't make you." He said. The Fake Daniel laughed.

"'Daniel will kill me', news flash! He tried to just then and failed! I don't think he can, or will. He's too much of a good boy to do it." He smirked and threw his hands up. "So, new deal! Vlad, I offer you this, kill the boy, I give you the antidote or let the timer run out and Danny will be allowed to leave alive."

**8888888888888**

Vlad froze. Not a good deal at all.

"Why me? Why chose me to make this choice?" He asked. This ghost knew about him, that he cared for the boy, watched over him, fought him to see how he was progressing with his powers butnever attempted to kill him, sure, there were incidents with the potential to kill him, but nothing Daniel couldn't handle.

The Fake Daniel had the ear to ear grin. Vlad wouldn't admit it but it made him shiver. Daniel should have that look on his face no matter his age, it didn't suit him.

"Because. I want you to suffer._ Daddy._"

On his last word, the blue rings appeared around him, where the taller Phantom stood a younger Daniel was, only his white hair was flaming much like Skulkers and eyes red with dark circles underneath. His clothes were black and formal, like he was attending an event like a fancy dinner or a funeral.

His eyes widened. The Daniel look-a-like snickered. No, not look-a-like. It _was_ Daniel, but the one he knew was laying in the crater, passed out. He hadn't turned back to human, thankfully. This Daniel in front of him was a different one.

"I know the truth. I found out. I was PISSED when I found out, all the years, your obsession with getting me on your side finally made sense." He growled. The face of an innocent child, the expression of a demon. "I HATE you for that. I hate ME for not figuring it out! I was so STUPID for not seeing the signs! When you kidnapped mom and me, that 'mother-son bonding trip, you talked about her 'mistake all those years ago.' That was me wasn't it? He was shrieking now. Vlad wasn't worried about anyone hearing them in the stadium there were no microphones. But the Daniel in front of him wasn't making any sense. And a more important question chanted in his mind _How did he know? HOW DID HE KNOW?_

"She was more than pissed when you asked her to leave her husband for you. You were _reminding her, _you were _taunting her_. I didn't realize at the time. But you were breaking your promise to her!" His voice changed, no longer just Daniel's voice, but a familiar one. His own_. "_You promised not to tell him or Jack! You were trying to go around it! _Selfish Bastard!"_

This was not a very stable Daniel, he backed away slightly as the Fake walked forward. He couldn't let his words get to Vlad. They were true, but hell if he was allowed to talk to him like that.

"I remember... when I was really young." His voice went quiet, Vlad could barely hear him. Childish, and his hair turned solid and just like Daniel's style, he clutched his head like it was aching. "Mom told me I had my fathers eyes. Dad's eyes were blue, but a different shade." He looked him right in the eyes as they flashed his human blue for a second. "Then I met you. It took a few years until I remembered her saying that. Then a few more to realize..." Then he was screaming again. "I HATE YOU!"

"I think you're raving!" Daniel, the one that had been lying in the crater had snuck up and grabbed his double. "I hate him too, but you don't have to make such a big deal out of it!"

"I'll split your skull this time!" Other Daniel growled, trying to grab him. He didn't change back to his tall more powerful self. Vlad briefly wondered if he forgot from his ranting. Real Daniel grabbed the Fake's wrist with the antidote and twisted it until he let it go. It fell in the grass and didn't break.

"Give her the Antidote!" Danny yelled, struggling with his double. Vlad didn't hesitate and grabbed the needle and flew over the Valerie, grabbing her arm and administering the Antidote. Daniel was thrown into him. He stood with difficulty infront of them both.

"Put a shield up, when I give the signal put it down." He ordered. "No arguing, no time and stay behind me and cover your ears."

Vlad put the shield up, Daniel sucked in as much air as he could. Was this a new power? The Fake Daniel tried to throw more ecto goop at him to stop the attack, theshield stopped him. Daniel threw his hand out and Vlad took it as the signal. Daniel exhaled and screamed. A scream infused with ectoplasm. A scream that went out in waves, was loud and earsplitting and ripped up the field. The fake Daniel screamed i agony and was flung back across the field. Danny stoped before the scream can get to the spectators. Things fell, the big screen whch had shown the battle shattered in a million peices. People screamed and covered thier heads.

The Fake Daniel somehow stood up, his clothes ripped and hair flaming wildly.

"You win... this round, little me." A portal appeared. He stood holding his left arm, the blue shield cracked and dissapeared. "But really? I won too."

"No!" Danny yelled, his voice sounded hoarse. "Can't let him get away..." He went for the thermos that had held Vlad but the Fake was gone and the portal closed behind him. He collasped backwards, Vlad made sure he didn't fall too hard. When the blue rings appeared around Daniel's waist he acted fast. He grabbed him and Valerie and teleported away before anyone could set foot on the field.

**Sweet Irony that Vlad has to fight Danny in a Football stadium with no way out. I actually liked that episode. ****And Danny's eyes ARE more similar to Vlads. seriously, that's my only evidence. Plus what Vlad said to Maddie in 'Marental Instincts'... **

**Thank you everyone that Reviewed! You give me confidence in my writting!**

**EDIT: Added moe and changed grammar, nothing to noticeable, but I wouldlike it if someone pointed out things I missed. Idid Say that Kindred Spirits happened differently, without Danny using his power. I should write up the alternate episodes, or leave it as it is and piece it together as teh story goes on.**


	7. Chapter seven: Recovery

**Friday update! I'm trying to fit it ito the weekends now, I have three assignments due in the next two weeks... I can do at least three thousand words on average a session, but it does go crazy after a while. I don't want that to happen.**

**I love all you who reviewed, and the people that read but don't comment, I love you too!**

**This is divided it to three parts, so it might be long.**

**Chapter seven: Recovery**

**Anna**

She had known for years. Really, first day on the job a ghost floated in and freaked her out. He had been looking for Vlad, and revealed more than a lowly part time job taking notes should have known. Vlad, to keep her quiet, promoted her to his personal assistant and secretary. Naturally people talked. It was Vlad's first public scandal and had him in newspapers for a while. He had offered to pay her a large sum of money to start somewhere else, to fund her med school. She chose to stay. Mostly because she liked her stable job, he wouldn't replace her.

She was one of the only people who could say they knew the real Vlad Masters. Sure, he donated to charity. Attended fund-raising events, seemed to have a loose hand on his wallet to give to the 'less fortunate'...

But she knew his dirty secrets. Using his powers at the beginning to build himself up, stealing from banks, the development of illegal technology, the clone vats in the basement...

But there was one dirty secret she did not know. Not until today. She had been packing up. Her music turned up loud. She could listen to the same CD for hours and neve get tired of it. She wasn't watching TV or radio. If she was, she would have seen what was coming.

With the familiar cold feeling, Vlad appeared carrying two teenagers. She instantly recognized one as Danny Phantom. Before her eyes he transformed from an injured ghost boy to a critically injured _human_ boy. _Danny,_ Vlad's nephew. The cute black haired teen that hated coming to the office, absolutely hated Vlad with a passion. She didn't know why until now.

"He's…" The words were caught in her throat. _Just like you. He's just like you!_ Vlad got his powers in an accident. What about Danny...?

"Valerie is sick." He cut her off, indicating the girl, her hair was soaked with both her blood and sweat as a fever assaulted her body. He laid them both down on the carpet of the office. "Daniel, I suspect has internal bleeding, in his weakened state he's not going to go well without medication." He looked up to her from the ground as he checked over his body. "He might need surgery."

"Take them to the Lab, I'll get my medical gear." She did take the medical coarse, and was now a qualified surgeon. She dashed over to the secret room, well, the second secret room anyway to get her things. While Vlad flew through the staircase she had to manually open the bookcase and quickly descend the stairs. When she got there the older ghost was buzzing around the room moving the beakers full of green goo. They looked the same to her, but to him they were all different, unique to his eyes. The teens were both on tables, the girl, Valerie Gray, another common visitor to the office was already taken care of.

"He's bleeding from somewhere, I can't find where." He said, he had equipment scanning the boy, who on a operation table looked small and broken. His human body could not take the injuries and she knew for a fact they could force him to transform.

"Get out of the way Vlad." She said, she would have pushed him away, but she was busy putting surgical gloves on. "Broken ribs, hopefully they don't puncture his skin and cause even more damage."

The rest went in a blur. She worked on him and fixed him up a best she could, bruises, internal bruises, internal bleeding, broken bones, fractured bones... a hell of a beating for a young boy. A small thought grew larger in her mind. Did Vlad do it? The way he was acting, she wished she was wrong.

"He needs blood." she said. He was running out, and she had no supply of Danny's blood type.

"Use mine." Vlad immediately said.

"I'm not an ectoplasm expert, but you said it would contaminate a person and he needs a match-"

"I'm a match! My stored blood will help." In a second he had the bag of blood ready. She stuck a needle into his arm and let the blood coarse through his veins. She would have to monitor them both to make sure Danny took the blood well, and that Valerie stayed alive.

But she knew that he would take the blood without much trouble. And Vlad knew it too.

"He's much more than just another half ghost isn't he?" She asked, after she sterilized her hands again. He paced between the tables, keeping an eye on both kids. He paused and wiped his face, stalling an answer.

"Yes." Vlad looked so troubled. She had never seen him like this. Only one time, at that was after the trip to the Rocky's Cabin. He had dosed himself in enough alcohol to make a liquor store jealous.

"He's you kid isn't he?" The way he tried to bring Danny closer, and the more physical evidence like the matching blood type, the same black hair and blue eyes. Jack had the same, so it would have been easy for Maddie to pass Danny of Jack's.

"He doesn't know. Jack also doesn't know." He said. "Maddie made me promise not to tell them. I plan on keeping that."

_But you will do anything to get around that roadblock._ She hadn't known a promise Vlad hadn't twisted to his own agenda. He kept them, that's what made the whole ordeal more hard. He made a promise he couldn't go around without breaking, to _Maddie_ no doubt. He was trapped and his own obsession for the woman was doing it. She was sure irony was in there somewhere.

Any other time, she would have known what to say. An illegitimate son to a married woman. The tabloids would kill him with this.

"I honestly don't know how I can help this time Vlad." She said, sitting down on a lab table. "No one else knows?"

"No."

"Do you want it to stay that way?" she asked. To gain a family of his own, to take his son back he would destroy a family to do it. Vlad had done some cruel things before. But Maddie was involved.

He stayed silent. Time passed and soon it was nearly ten pm, Anna called the Fenton's to give them a cover story. Danny had been crossing the road to get home and a hit and run occurred. Vlad was coming in a limo and had her fix her up, since their part of Wisconsin was on lock down from the Ghosts' fighting they couldn't take him to a hospital. There were holes in the lie, why go all the way back to Wisconsin and not to the closer Amity hospital? The Couple weren't thinking. They have a blown up basement and portal to deal with, along with the added stress of their injured son they left him in Vlad's hands to look after until the can come pick him up.

Valerie was a different story. Her father was screaming into the phone and it took almost fifteen minutes to calm him down. She had told the truth; Valerie had been saved but was ill from side effects. He would be at the castle by morning.

Anna cleans up, covers up, and deals with Vlad's messes. How was she going to deal with this one?

**Danny** woke in pain. On his forehead were bandages, his right arm had been broken, which he was now feeling from when the portal exploded and he knew it was a bad thin that he could brely feel his legs. He couldn't remember past being crushed by a purple block several times. But he did remember his older self screaming to Vlad about hating him. That was went Danny attacked him, Vlad getting the Antidote to Valerie-

"Valerie." He said, sitting up. Vlad jumped. He sat next to his bed. Moving wasn't a good idea, he found that out a second after trying. Pain shot up his spine and he tried to ignore it. He winched instead of showing anything else.

"Try not to move." Vlad offered.

_Too late, genius. _Danny mentally snarked. "Is Valerie alright?"

"She's running a fever, but the antidote has worked and she will be alright."

The room was large. to the left was a door and adjacent to the bed was another one. A plasma sat in the corner, a wardrobe to his right. It looked like the room when he first stayed in at the reunion.

Vlad looked exhausted, mentally so, like he had a weight on his shoulders. Danny realized he never had a chance of beating him after running around Amity Park, maybe even then. He was never intended to kill Vlad. Then what was his Older Self playing at? To talk to Vlad? The other human Vlad from the future was a broken man, what was he hoping to achieve? His parting words were worrying.

"_You've won this round, little me. _**_But I have too._**"

"Daniel, we have serious trouble." Vlad said, snapping him out of his thoughts by once again stating the obvious.

"You're telling me." Danny said. "He got away; I have to go talk to Clockwork..."

"The Time Master?" Vlad had heard tales of the mythical ghost. To hear that the teenager had met him and on good terms with the old ghost surprised him. He pushed it away to pay attention to Danny.

"Yeah..." The memories of the broken Vlad flashed over his mind again. The arrogant, selfish, obsessed, fruit loop before him could become that without his powers, without anything. He was too tired to even think anymore. "How are we in trouble?"

Vlad took a deep breath. "It's all over the news." He turned the TV on and surfed a few channels before finding a news report. It was on mute. "The little run around in Amity and the fight here have been linked. The media pieced it together, The huntress was kidnapped, you received a threat and a taunt and ran you around Amity looking for clues, destroying the Fenton portal…" A lump formed in Danny's throat. His parent's life work, gone. Even if he felt glad that the stupid portal was gone, the look of his heartbroken parents didn't leave his mind.

"They don't blame you for that." Danny stared at the screen. The burnt letters in the school, the broken clock tower, the destroyed portal with interviews in front of its smoking remains.

"Why not?"

"They knew you were trying to save Valerie." Then the silent replay of the news that morning, which seemed forever ago. "You're still their 'hero'." Danny ignored the subtext of the comment and watched the TV.

Valerie saving him from falling, defending him in front of the cameras, using the confident voice he loved. He looked so pathetic holding his shoulder and sitting on the board. He didn't realize his face had showed to awe he felt.

He thought of the older Valerie from the future... Did His older self still like her? Was that the reason she was still alive? No. She survived. His older self would kill her, like her tried to kill present Valerie.

"But the Guy's in White and Government are on your tail after that new power you displayed." As if on cue, the devastating ghost wail shattered cameras and ripped the field up. From one tattered, tired ghost boy. Mayhem, disaster. He couldn't watch as he almost hit the stands and turned his head away. One of the reasons he never used it in Amity, too many people, too many close buildings. He couldn't even practice to control it, he had no room to unless he flew for half an hour to find somewhere isolated enough for him to practice.

"What about... Him?" He was almost afraid to ask. Weakened, his older self would be regrouping somewhere. What could he tell Vlad? Hey, that's a possible future for me! you turn into a hermit and become even more lonely for another ten years and I kill the world!

"He escaped." Vlad flicked his eyes to the clock. "I have people searching for him in the ghost zone."

"Do you need a list of his powers?" He turned to be more comfortable but ended up causing more pain, he hissed slightly. "You'll need every advantage and surprise you can take."

"Don't strain yourself." Vlad said. And then Danny was sick of it. Sick of talking to Vlad like there was no bad blood between them. No scheming or putting his family and friends in danger or the other things he's pulled. Vlad was not friend, they've only teamed up a handful of times, and even then it was rocky.

"You're not the boss of me!" He snapped. "I need to catch him! I need to put him away again, or else he's going to kill everyone I love and destroy _everything_!"

"_Who is he?_" Vlad pressed. Not fazed by his little temper. It did catch Danny off guard.

"He's..." What can he say? "No one you should worry about. Let me deal with him."

"Daniel, he nearly killed you and Valerie, and roped me in as well for a personal agenda, I should worry about him."

"... He would have told you." Danny muttered. "What else would you too have talked about while I was out of it? Telling you how he killed mum and dad, Jazz, Sam, Tucker, Mr Lancer, and that was just the beginning, who knows how many lives he took, how much damaged caused..."

"Daniel, is he from the future?" Vlad asked. Maybe he remembered Clockwork was involved and it didn't take a genius to think he was connected in time travel.

It didn't surprise Danny Vlad pieced it together, he could never call him an idiot. A fruit loop maybe, but he had the same qualifications his parents had. It was easy to forget he was a scientist.

Why keep it a secret any longer? His Future concerned Vlad, his powers being yanked out and absorbed by him. Becoming the most powerful being on the planet and Ghost zone. And If he knew, they could both take steps to prevent that future, he can work with him on that with no trouble.

"He's _my future. _Something happened; an accident killed my friends, family and teacher. I was sent to live with you... I had nowhere else to go." His voice crack, the mere prospect of losing his family, and having only Vlad still troubled him. "I couldn't live with it, and I asked you to get rid of my human emotions. You complied." He took a moment, wondering if he should go on. Too late to stop now. "It went _to_ right. My human and ghost half were separate, but my ghost half was crazy, he stole your powers and took it as his own and became that thing you say today.

"Ten year's rampaging the world, nothing could stop him. Valerie was alive, you were alive." He bit his lip and decided to skip what happened to Vlad out. "Things happened, and then we met in the future. He trapped me there and went to the past, disguised as me and tried to replicate the accident that sent me down the path of becoming him."

"So he's going to try and remake the accident now to get you on the timeline again?"

Danny shook his head.

"It wouldn't work. Things change, Clockwork told me that. The same thing doesn't happen twice, the same accident can't be redone." Then determination held him. The ruined Amity will never happen, the deaths of thousands will never happen. "It's a different path now, and I will not let him ruin it!"

"Calm down." Vlad said, he admired the spirit in the boy, but he would hurt himself. Bones could reset faster if you didn't move.

"You're taking this rather well, Vlad." Danny directed his attention to the older Ghost, who froze. "What did he take to you about? Since, it wasn't about the future."

Vlad visibly paused and had to think about it, it was a short moment but it sent alarm bells ringing.

"Hating me for pulling his humanity out, nothing new. Didn't understand what he meant until now." He got up and went for the door, almost a little too quickly for Danny. "Your parents know you're here, the cover is you got hit by a car in a hit and run."

"And Valerie?"

"Father's coming in the morning." He watched Vlad close the door behind him and Danny was alone to his thoughts.

_Liar. He loves not having humanity._ Danny didn't dwell on it for long. He flicked through the channels of the TV, trying to find something that didn't show the last twenty four hours of hell.

**Valerie** woke up in a panic. The late thing she remembered was Phantom grinning like a maniac and throwing an ectoblast at her. Truce breaker! Was she wrong to trust him the second time?

Her head hurt and she felt extremely warm, she checked her forehead and discovered she was running a fever with a damp towel; she was under a thick blanket in a very fancy four post bed. She looked at her surroundings. She was a room that was large with old fashion decorations and a large chandelier. Not any where she's seen, but the walls were made of stone, why would they be…?

"Castle." She deducted. Now it was time to escape. The door opposite the bed looked to be the way out. She felt dizzy getting up. And naked, her equipment was gone, even the bracelet that was the armor. No matter how much her father hacked at it, it wouldn't come off. She suspected only a ghost could take it off. Phantom took he stuff and left her in a castle room, where he treated her for her headache... Well, it made no sense _now, _but let her gather evidence to support her theory and she'll get back to us.

The front door was the first thing she went for; she peaked outside to find an empty hallway. She quickly exited to find another way out.

"Stay in your room, human!" A voice suddenly roared, she yelped and stepped back. A black horse with unnaturally large sharp teeth with leather bat wings appeared in front of her, it's rider with equally black armour. She instantly recognized him from the ghost king incident.

She retreated back to her room and locked the door, before mentally kicking herself. It could just phase through. The fever was affecting her mind, because she swore she heard Phantom yelling through the wall, muffled. How could she hear through the stone walls anyway?

"I haven't moved, Night Light!" An arrogant voice called out. _Phantom!_

"Insolent pup! I'll have you sliced..." Didn't sound friendly, it must have been the Knight ghost.

"Yeah, yeah, Masters won't like you killing his nephew. I'm healing as fast as I can, then I'll be out of here!"

She was pretty sure she was delusional. But it sounded like it was coming from the other door. She pressed her ear against the wooden door. She heard _SpongeBob Squarepants _set to a high volume.

"Ha! Sandy's going to rip your skin off!" If she could laugh at the ghost boy's commentary she would have. She tested the handle, slowly turning it. "Holy Crap, this is a kid's show!"

She peaked inside, and didn't see the person she was expecting.

"Danny?" Danny Fenton looked like he had been hit by a truck, then it back up over him with all eighteen wheels. He was prompted up with pillows in a bed similar to her own. Luxury surrounded him. The plasma roaring and junk food surrounded the bed and covers.

"Val! Hi! You're awake..." He said, turning the TV to mute. _What was he doing here?_

"What the hell happened to you?" She shrieked. She could barely see a part of him that wasn't bandaged. He visibly winched, and not from his injuries. "_Did Phantom do this to you?_"

She jumped to the conclusion with a fire in her eyes. If Phantom did this, the truce was dead! Dead like she was going to make him for touching Danny!

She heard him sigh, it sounded rattly. She shouldn't yell at him, he wasn't the one to yell at, no when there was someone she can _shoot_ at... She saw how drained he looked. He laid back down.

"Val, I've been meaning to tell you for a while." He began. "You remember when I told you to meet me on the roof to talk? I was going to tell you then, but things got complicated, I don't know how much you remember but you'll see it on the news soon enough."

Now she was confused. She had no idea where she was, why Danny was sitting injured and talking nonsense. She didn't remember the last few hours and the last thing was Phantom blasting her. She had the right to be confused.

"What? What are you talking about Danny _Phantom_ asked me to meet on the roof, you're…" Her words died in her mouth as a blue ring appeared around his torso and split into two and travelled up and down his body. She watched as Danny Fenton was replaced with a white haired teen with tired green eyes.

"Phantom? You're... Danny? You're Danny _and_ Danny?" She felt stupid saying that. Really stupid. Phantom, Fenton. Danny, Danny. One in the same.

"Half ghost." He smiled. "Neither boy or ghost, the little freak caught in the middle." He reached for a bottle on the counter next to him. "Excuse me, every time I get grouchy I have to take one of this."

"Are you like Vlad?" She managed to choke out. The person she crushed on for nearly a year was the person she was trying to protect, from _himself._ Her head hurt.

"Yeah, like Vlad." He said. "It's not a genetic thing, we both had accidents involving ghost portals being activated." he scratched his neck, a common action by both Phantom and Fenton. Now that she thought of it, there were so many indications she must have been flying around with her helmet backwards. "My parents told me he was staring into the portal when it was activated; I was inside the portal when I activated it. I told you my death was an accident. My stupidity got me half killed."

"That's your pain pills talking." She said. She was tired; he was tired, she was sure the medication was making him sleepy. Her fever was making her dizzy. She could think straight later. She left the room to go back to her own and dragged the large blanket of her bed into Danny's room.

"Shouch over." She ordered, he moved slightly, as best as he could. She cleared the bed and sat down next to him and threw the cover over them. He frowned slightly.

"Aren't you going to yell at me for not telling you? Where are the questions? I'm confused." He rubbed his head, the part that wasn't bandaged.

"I am too; I plan on yelling at you in the morning." She confiscated the remote of him, he protested as she flicked the channels. "Now, I've watched this episode. We're switching to Disney."

"Aww..." He groaned, sinking in his place. He quickly sat up again and tried to take the remote. "Wait! Val-"

She stopped flicking as she passed a few channels with the news. All of it was Danny Phantom fighting Vlad at the Wisconsin football field. Then another ghost with flaming hair. Then film of the school with words burned into the structure. _**Ten minutes or she dies,**_the broken clock tower, the destroyed ghost portal. The destroyed stadium...

"You did all that... to save me?" she asked, her mouth gasping. He _did_ care for her. All this, for _her._ If it hadn't been clear before, it was now.

"You said you'll yell at me later..." he said. She would have laughed at him at his tone.

"What for?" She asked with genuine surprise. "You saved me; you did all that, fought Vlad, that guy, who is that?"

"I'll... tell you later." He sighed. "You're weird, you do a one eighty on me, and you're not the least bit phased by this."

She didn't know what compiled her, her fever or something else. She sat up while Danny laid down, Being slightly higher than him, she lent down and kissed his forehead, he was cold, as ghost's were. He looked up at her white his green eyes. She felt stupid for not seeing the same person beneath them.

"I fight ghosts for a living, the irony in that statement should be enough for you." He was going to say something, but she shushed him and made herself comfortable on the bed next to him. "Now shush, _Phideas and Ferb_ is on."

**A little iffed at the ending of this, Valerie is just 'K, what evea lets watch cartoons'. Fever running, she's confused! that's my story and I'm sticking to it!**

**Just rewatched Reign storm and Control Freaks, wow, two years ago I knew every episode by heart and constantly haunted (no pun intended) fanfiction. And I'm in love ith Danny phantom again. **_**At the worst possible time, **_**my finals are in October!**

**Fright Night was going to appear in the last chapter to help Vlad fight Dark Danny. But it never came to a fight, so Fright Night never had to come. So, having him as a glorified babysitter is hilarious to me. Danny was going to find out this chapter, but it never came to that, just like Fright night not getting involved in the last fight. **

**I'm not a trained medical student, or doctor (I watched every season of Scrubs, close enough). But I've done my best trying to describe the medical stuff, I tried trimming it down. You must be thinking, what has Vlad, the glorified businessman, been up to to need a private, secret surgeon? Well, we have his youth to go through... **

**Final chapter next before I start a sequel. I don't know wether to write in the same story or start a new one. Opinions? The next part will deal with the meeting more and catching Dan, Danielle will appear and Danny would have heaps of inner demons to face.**

**Over 4,850 words. Hope your happy. It's 11pm were I am. I got to study tomorrow.**


	8. Chapter eight: Aftermath

**Last Chapter for this arc. Might be short, and forshadows what's to come.**

Young Danny wasn't a menace again. He was a direct threat to everyone if he got out of control. What kept him from destoying everything? What made him stay 'sided' with humans? His obsession?

The Observer Council had all its seats taken as again, Danny Phantom was the Topic. Full house. Serena sat near the front with Anderson. The chatter of them gave her a head ache.

"What do you mean, you couldn't read him?" The High Observent asked, his voice reverberating around the hall. She sighed.

"I _could_ read him, half way through the bloody meeting it cut out! Static." She waved her hand, a hologram of the older Phantom appeared, grinning like a maniac he was. "This_ thing_ was out, two of them running around were giving me a headache!" She knew they would have never let her represent the Observents if her powers didn''t rely on close range to work or to read someone's future.

"Never the less, we need as much information on Phantom as we can gather." He continued. She glared slightly. This Job sucks. But she needed it to forfill her own agenda. "Since those files Madam Serena _kindly_ told the whole ghost zone about are now missing and Clockwork refuses to let us peer into Phantom's future."

Oh great, she was in trouble. She leaves her post at the paper work office for more then an hour things get lost, and somehow it was her fault for wanting a break.

"I do remember a lot from scrying myself." Serena said. "Please, allow me to collect intellegence on the half ghosts myself and show you my findings."

"We'll postpone his evaluation and wait for your findings then." Observent Matthew said. "If you show us he is a danger, he will be dealt with accordingly."

"Phantom is a danger, we all saw the damage he caused today, and he was _weakened._" Observent Nickolas said, several agreed with him. "He's showing signs of become the worst possbile outcome for the future, OUR future. We can't let him run riot."

"I can keep an eye on him. At Dora's ball, we can arrange for me to stay with Phantom for the customary council member swap." Serena said. She was glad for knowing the rules as well as Walker did. But they were more like guide lines.

"That is an old tradition, I'm sure no one practices tha anymore." Observent Johnson piped up.

"We'll bring it back then." Observent Bob countered. "I'm for this idea."

"Thank you, Bob." She said. "I am the best for the job anyway, I can blend in with humans."

"Then it's decided." The High Observent summoned a hammer and banged it on the table. "Serena the Oracle is to gather intel on Danny Phantom, for evidence for his assessment."

She smiled in triump, she was getting closer to completing her own agenda as well.

**Dan** hid. It was the best he could do at the moment. He was back in the human world, The ghost zone was crawling with ghosts looking for him. Weakened, he would barely stand a chance.

Regroup, replan, Take down his younger self is a blast of an explosion, thenn giggle madly about it and find marshmellows to roast.

"Hello Clockwork." He said, sensing the time stop. The ghost appeared as a child in th alley with him. He made no attempt to fight him.

"Last chance. You lost twice to young Danny. Just come with me and this won't end in tears" He wondered if Clockwork was just misguided into thinking he would come or just senile.

"No chance in hell." He growled. "I have a backup plan." He looked across the street to the house, which could pass as a small mansion.

"Concerning that girl?" Clockwork questioned. Why would he qustion? Unless he really couldn't see what the future held now. "She has very old Gyp blood running through her veins. It was luck that had her become such a superficial girl, that cheerleading is the only skill she bothered to develop or the world would have more then childish ghosts running around."

"Yeah, yeah, I remember how hard she was to kill." She was the last one in his class to die, other than Valerie, he had made games, hunts to keep him preoccupied. From shallow, airheaded, A lister to a fierce warrior in a matter of five years. It was going to be fun messing with her mind. "Now, imagine if she was on _my_ side. Imagine if I was the one guiding her through all of her powers…"

"You will cause more damage then you can even imagine." Clockwork said as fact.

"Yay! Chaos is my middle name, actually I think it's James… Eh, it ain't important." He waved his hand at Clockwork, like he was a fly that he couldn'tbe bothered swatting, which in hindsight, Clockwork was to him. "Get lost. Go tell Danny what I'm planning or something."

"I don't plan to do that."

"Oh, continuing with that 'watching the parade' thing still? Even if a riot breaks out over the parade, you're going to sit on your high horse and let some innocent girl get hurt?"

Dan didn't hear Clockwork go. He wondered if he actually had been there or he imagined the whole thing.

Besides, he had plans to think of. He didn't choose this alley for no reason. He could see his intended victim walk out the front door of her house, looking back in and waving.

Paulina collapsed. Gasping for breath. The same horrible feeling again. It would have been alright; she would have dusted herself down and took a pill. But she had the bad fortune to be standing at the top of the stairs. She hoped she didn't rip her clothes, they were expensive. She rubbed her head gentle so she didn't mess her hair up.

"Sweetie!" Her father had seen her fall, he carefully helped her up. "Are you alright?"

"Yes Papa." She said. She steadied herself against him. "I just had another dizzy spell…"

_"It's not iron deficiency. Everything is normal, blood levels, body weight is a little under but not life threatening. The doctor was going over her medical records again, puzzled at it._

_"What about the seizures?" Mr Shanchez asked. The worry seeping in his voice. _

_"It could be a form of epilepsy." The doctor suggested. "You're daughter said she had a hard time breathing and moving when these 'seizures' occur?"_

_"What are you implying?" He growled, hearing the emphasis on seizures. "You think she's faking it?"_

_"No! But If I hadn't seen her have one of these seizures myself I wouldn't have believed her." He adjusted his glasses. "I'm doing my best to figure out why these seizures came back. She's not stressed is she? The last time it was around her C.A.T's right?"_

_"There is nothing stressing her, not that I know of." He admitted. He had also mentioned a time when she was younger, an extremely violent attack that put her in hospital for a few days. Back then, they thought she was faking it. How could she fake it anyway? Her eyes rolling into her head, her muscles spamming and jerking. She was in the other room with the other child patients._

_"We might have to do a full cat scan to understand the problem." The doctor said. "I'll have her booked at the hospital. It would be a weekday, and I'm sure the holidays aren't for a while. If there is something wrong, we have no idea how long it will take to treat her. It might ruin her education."_

"_How am I supposed to tell her?" Her school life meant so much to her. He knew how popular he was. He knew it was what she strived for._

_"Just tell her the truth." He said in a gentle voice. He would have had to deal with hundreds of cases concerning sick kids._

_"Daddy!" She poked her head through the door. "Oh, sorry. Can I visit next week? I just promised the ward I would read to them." She said it with a big smile._

_She tried to hide it, but she really liked kids. In front of her friends, she would scoff about them. But when they weren't around she was nearly a different person. He sighed._

_"Paulina…" Her father said, she frowned at how grave he looked. "Sit down. We need to talk."_

When she was okay and had taken her pills, he allowed her to leave for her friends party. Promising no alcohol, drugs, the sort. Just in case it would aggravate her seizures.

"I won't Papa, this is the last time I might be seeing them, anyway. Let me make the most of it." She smiled sweetly. He believed her, he never heard of or suspected her of going to a party like that, her friends were questionable, but nice all the same.

She had lied to her friends, telling them she was going to go on vacation to visit her family in Spain. That was the only proof he needed to know she was scared of what cold happen. He sat at the steps and watched her skip away. It looked like she barely thought about the seziures, but he was, every thought was taken by her mysterious illness.

_"Arf!"_

He looked up. No one owned a dog on this street, there wasn't anyone walking past either. His eyes spotted the culprit.

It was mostly black, but had white socks on all four legs and the tip of its tail white, the top of its head had a poofy patch of fur and white. It had very strange bright green eyes. It barked again and came closer.

"Huh." He said, giving it a scratch. Tame, it wasn't going to bite. "You look like Phantom. No collar either…."

No collar ment free game, right? His daughter would love him, his daughter wouldn't have any company in hospital, other than the other kids and her obsession with Phantom would make her extremely happy, there wasn't much else he can give her to ease the fear he knew was eventually going to hit her. A dog would be perfect.

"You are going to be a surprise for my daughter." He said. He knew there was a high chance it belonged to someone else, the coat and the tameness could only mean a private collector. He couldn't even tell the breed, it looked like a wolf cross. Whoever was dumb enough to loose such a specialy breed dog and not put a collar on it can have it back, _if_ they find it.

He did however, miss the dog's eyes flash red for a moment, and how cold he was.

**Further proof! The Booomerang hit Vlad! Danny was right there! But it Hit vlad! why else would it do that unless their ectosignatures were even a little bit similar? (Kindred spirits)**

**Yes, Mr Shanchez is doin something ilegal, but he's justifying himself by saying it's for his daughter. Dan is taking advantage of that. **

**Anyway, Paunlina might become a large part of the next arc, and 'Gyp blood' is by no means me being racist or what, it's a term for a type of people in some of my books I'm writing where they are desended from nomads with gifted powers, and one blood line in particular, which I'm making Paulina a part of.**

**And Dan disguising himslef as a dog? IDK, I'll make use of it somehow.**

**SHOUT OUT TO: Littlestorywriter, My first reviewer. Luiz4200, for being inquizative. Surreal Prince, for reminding me about my grammer. Kirara the great, for always being interested, GollaG, for agreeing with my pairing. coopt98 for egging me on. ChopSuzi, for making me laugh. DizzlyPuzzled, for calling me a friend. Wolf of Prey, a late reviewer. Thank you all of you!**

**The Sequel will be called 'Truth', you can only guess what it's about, look out for it!**


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